After years of flying to Heathrow or suffering the nightmare that is Dublin Airport the people of Northern Ireland now have a feasible alternative. Today Belfast International Airport offers a great range of destinations which are long overdue in Northern Ireland. Only a few years ago the only international destination served was Amsterdam. Today there is a good selection of domestic, European and transatlantic destinations. The Airlines and destination served are:
Wizz Air - Katowice (Starts 29 May 2007), Warsaw (Starts 28 May 2007)
Zoom Airlines - Toronto, Vancouver
The transport links have also improved immensly! A bus service now connects the airport with the city centre every 10 minutes. There are also bus routes to Londonderry, Coleraine, Omagh and a host of new and cross border destinations starting soon.
Parking at the airport has also changed significantly, the 8,000 space car park is now operated by Q-Park who have introduced a host of improvements. A new free shuttle bus service which brings customers right to the airport entrance at 5-minute intervals, bus shelters, improved lighting and security have been introduced and all for the reduced price of £4 per day or £3 if booked in advance!
Once at the airport you enter a large and modern check-in area with around 40 check-in desks. This hall can often get busy especially on weekday mornings from 6am to 9am. However even when busy it is still easy to find your desk and check in. This is relatively stress free compared to Dublin airport where it is a nightmare to navigate through the crowds with trolleys of luggage.
After checking in you proceded up the moving walkway to an area of shops, cafes and a food village. The food village offers a range of hot food cooked to order, sandwiches & filled baguettes, snacks and pastries. The Shops and cafes include a large newsagents, a souvenir shop, Burger King and a Fresh Juice & Smoothie bar. ATMs and a Travelex can also be found here.
You can then proceed through the revamped security area which never takes more than 5 minutes, into the modern departure lounge with a good selection of shops and cafes such as Starbucks and cafe Paul Rankin. This is where the duty free shops, Clockwork Orange, Boots, Dixons tax free and another newsagents are located. The Business lounge can also be found here and costs only £12 or £9.50 for passengers holding easyjet, bmibaby & jet2 tickets. The lounge offers a range of business facilities including fax, photocopying and internet access points along with drinks, snacks and a good view of arriving and departing planes.
Passengers then proceed to either the domestic departure gates or the international departure gates on a seperate pier.
A great airport which continues to get even Better!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
I can see you have updated your review and just a little bit more tweaking will def gain the higher ratins. The list at the beginning is a bit off putting for reading and often a link to the web site at the end of the review can be quite acceptable. Quite a few of your own personal thoughts really makes a review stand out. Fionaxx
Essexgirl2006 18.09.2006 15:06
Welcome to Ciao! As cladach said below, this needs more info to secure higher rating. Personally I would like to see more info on the shops and facilities, parking costs etc. Please leave a note in my guestbook if you edit and I will re-rate.
cladach29 18.09.2006 00:24
Welcome to Ciao- hope you enjoy being a member. This review is really way too brief and should include much more about facilities that the airport offers as well as your opinions of these. Take a look at some other reviews written by more experienced Ciao-ers (at least blue spot) to see what I mean. If you edit, i'll be happy to read again and re-rate. -Rob
NH Hotels, the hotel chain leader in Europe, with more than 300 hotels in 20 countries in Europe, Latin America and Africa. Enter into our web site and find the best available tariff at all times
Sep 18th, 2006
(Sep 30th, 2006)
helpful by (63%):
somewhat helpful by (38%):
